RELATIVE PRONOUNS

• it gives more information about the subject or object of the sentence.
• when referring to a person use : who, whom, whose, whoever, whomever.
• when referring to a thing, place, or idea use : which, that, what, whatever, whichever

who vs. whom

• use who when referring to the subject of the sentence.
• use whom when referring to the object of the sentence.

whoever vs. whomever

• use whoever when the sentence requires a subject pronoun as the answer.
• use whomever when the sentence requires an object pronoun as the answer.

subject pronouns

- relate to the subject of the sentence.

• I. He. She. It. They. We

object pronouns

-the object of the sentence receives the action.

-relate to the object of the sentence.

• me. him. her. it. them. us

INTENSIVE PRONOUNS

• it is defined as a pronoun that ends in self or selves and places emphasis on its antecedent by referring back to another noun or pronoun used earlier in the sentence.
• almost identical to reflexive pronouns

common intensive pronouns

• himself. herself. yourself. themselves. ourselves

REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS

• Pronouns that are preceded by an adj, adv, or noun that indicates that the person who is realizing the action, is also the receiver of the action or verb. 
• The difference between Reflexive Pronouns and Intensive Pronouns is that, in a sentence with an Intensive pronoun, if you remove the pronoun (i.e myself, yourself, himself, etc.), the sentence will not change, whereas, in Reflexive pronouns, the pronoun or subject itself is the receiver of the action.

Example:

Reflexive pronoun: "Nico found himself staring at the ceiling."

Intensive Pronoun: " Nico himself is staring at the ceiling."

RECIPROCAL PRONOUNS

• Pronouns that indicate that an action or a feeling is returned or reciprocated.

Example:

"CJ and Chelle were holding each other's hands."

"The Johns and the Ricks hate one another's companies."

July 18, 2017

Singular and Plural Nouns ( Regular and Irregular nouns )

Singular noun - refers to one noun.

Plural nouns - refers to more than one noun.

REGULAR NOUNS 

Singular nouns can be pluralized by adding -s or -es
Ex. Boat-boats 


Singular nouns ending in s,x,z,ch,sh can be pluralized by adding -es 
Ex. Bus-buses


A singular noun ending in a consonant and then y makes the plural form by dropping the y and adding -ies. 
Ex. Penny- pennies 


While in some words we follow the general rule, there are certain instances we exempt words 
Ex. Hero-heroes


IRREGULAR NOUNS 

Singular nouns that changes the spelling when pluralized. 
Ex. Woman- women leaf- leaves 

Again there are certain instances we exempt words. 
Ex. Roof-roofs

Some nouns does not change the spelling. 
Ex. Deer-deer sheep-sheep

Words that are plural in form and does not have a singular form.
Ex. Jeans 

Pluralizing the principal noun 
Ex. Basket-of-gold - baskets-of-gold


July 21, 2017 

Noun and Pronoun Case

Subjective Case- the noun or pronoun is used as a subject

Objective Case-  A noun or pronoun is in the objective case when it is used as a direct object, an indirect object, or an object of the preposition. 

Possessive Case- noun that shows ownership of an object.

Pronoun- used to replace the noun(s).

Demonstrative pronouns- are pronouns used to point to something specific

Interrogative pronouns- are pronouns used to make questions easy

PERSONAL, DEFINITE AND INDEFINITE PRONOUNS
 
Personal pronouns- referring to people or beings. Personal pronoun is a pronoun that is associated primarily with a particular person, in the grammatical sense.

Definite pronouns -  refer to something specific. So a personal pronoun would also be a definite pronoun. 


Indefinite pronouns - do not refer to something specific. 

Noun

July 11, 2017

Proper noun- refers to something specific like people, places, animals and things.

Common noun - words used to name general items rather than specific ones.

Count noun - refers to things that can be divided up into smaller units which are separate and distinct from one another.

Non-Count noun - cannot be expressed in plural form. Things that cannot be counted because they are regarded as wholes which cannot be divided into parts.

some/any : countable and uncountable noun
much : uncountable noun
many : uncountable noun
little : uncountable noun
few : countable noun
a lot of/lots of : uncountable and countable noun
a little bit of : uncountable noun
enough : countable and uncountable noun
plenty of : countable and uncountable noun
no : countable and uncountable noun

Abstract nouns - refers to intangible things like concepts, actions, feelings, ideas, and qualities. It cannot be experienced with our five senses.

Concrete noun - experience concrete nouns through our five senses.


July 14, 2017

Collective nouns -  are names for a collection or refers to groups of people, animals or things.

Compound nouns - contains two or more words which join together to make a single noun.

4 Forms of Compound Noun

close form ( keyboard, butterfly)
hyphenated form ( son-in-law )
open form ( post office )
words combined with the word "and" ( bread and butter )

Material noun - things that came from nature / materials or substances from which things are made. 

Gender Specific nouns - specific in what gender we are referring to.

masculine - for male noun
feminine - for female noun

June 27, 2017

                Last June 22, 2017, we had our diagnostic test in our grammar class. It's a 25 items exam and in each sentence you must look for the mistakes. As an English majors, we are expected to know how or what words are right and applicable to use in a sentence because i guess, that's what grammar is all about.

1. Are any of the stationeries alright?

•  As you can see, the mistake in that sentence is the word "stationaries". Why? because there is no such word. The correct word to use is "stationery" which is already in it's plural form.

2. I also learned that " irregardless" is actually a word. You might thought that it's not because of it's non-standard form but you can checked it in a dictionary and from their you can find the existence of the word irregardless.

3. We should remember that the use of  "on" is when it tells an exact date or time while "in" if not.

4. The difference between biennial and biannual.

• Biennial happens every two years while ;
• Biannual happens twice a year.

5. Always look out for hyphenated words, as well as American and British spellings.

June 30, 2017

Let's talk about Language !!

      

What is Language ?

                

              It is a system of arbitrary sound and symbols used in human communication which means it cannot be used by animals or any other creatures. It is a system because it follows set of rules. The arbitrariness of language are words that does not have any connection with the thing itself. And it is conventional because we follow a certain convention.

Grammar

       

        It is a whole system of language that composed of many things. Phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics are all the components of a particular language.

    Noam Chomsky conceptualized Universal Grammar : rules that are actually true in all grammars.

Descriptive Grammar or the Descriptivist : describes grammar

Prescriptive Grammar or the Prescriptivist : prescribes grammar and correct grammar depending on what is the standard english.

   World Englishes  - theory by Braj Kachru

                               " No One Nation Can Actually Claim English "

Inner Circle -            English as 1st Language

Outer Circle -           English as 2nd Language

Expanding Circle -   English as their Foreign Language

Language is considered as 1st language when you are fluent in a particular language.

Grammaticality -  correctness of a particular sentence

Acceptability - when a content in a sentence doesn't make sense.

That's all. Thank you :)